Author Topic: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live (Read 159153 times)

cassini · « **Reply #90 on:** January 29, 2025, 11:16:51 AM »

Fr Sean again.
Mary and Joseph Presented the Infant Jesus to God in the Temple

The Catholic Church celebrates the event of Jesus’ presentation to God in the Temple by Mary and Joseph. They did this in accordance with the Law of the Lord as obedient Jews. Mosaic Law required that the first born in every family and in every herd of animals were to be consecrated to God signifying that he possessed them. The Church celebrates this event because it is the first public recognition that Jesus is the Promised Messiah. This event is remembered in the 4th Joyful Mystery of the Holy Rosary. It is celebrated with the blessing of candles reminding us that Jesus is the “Light of the World” and promised that “Anyone who follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12). The blessed lit candle in churches and in homes is a sacramental that leads us to realize that Jesus is the light that enlightens everyone.

Four hundred year or so before the birth of Jesus the Old Testament prophet Malachi prophesied the presentation of Jesus in the Temple. “Thus says the Lord God: Lo, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me; and suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek, and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Yes, he is coming…He will purify the sons of Levi, refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the Lord” (Mal 3:1-4). The Temple represented God’s presence for the Israelites and that was where they offered sacrifice in their worship of Him. The Messiah and the Temple are directly connected and this was affirmed by Jesus when He went missing in Jerusalem after the Passover celebration and Mary and Joseph found Him in the Temple. When scolded by Mary, Jesus responded, “Did you not know that I had to be in my Father’s House?” (Lk 2:49). When the Temple was replaced by the ѕуηαgσgυє and the ѕуηαgσgυє was replaced by the Church founded by Jesus He promised to be with His Church until the end of time (Mt 28:20). By presenting the baby Jesus in the Temple Mary and Joseph were presenting Him to God the Father. Similarly in Baptism when parents present their child in the Church they are presenting him or her to Jesus who in turn asks His Father to adopt the child as His child. The Church is the sign of Jesus’ presence amongst us.

In the Presentation not only was Jesus revealed as the Messiah and Saviour of the world for both the Jews and Gentiles but also that He would cause division. In the Temple Mary and Joseph were greeted by two holy people, Simeon and Anna. Both were waiting for the Messiah to come and now, inspired by the Holy Spirit, recognize the infant Jesus as the One promised by God. Simeon took the baby Jesus from Mary and holding Him in his arms “blessed God saying: ‘Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to Your word, for my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You prepared in the sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory for Your people Israel’” (Lk 2:28-32). Both Mary and Joseph “were amazed at what was said about Jesus” and both Simeon and Anna were overjoyed by this divine revelation that God had once again fulfilled His promise to personally save His people by coming among them Himself. But then, Simeon, after blessing Mary and Joseph, while still holding the infant Jesus in his arms, looked directly at Mary and said, “Behold, this child is destined for the rise and fall of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted – and you yourself a sword shall pierce – so that the thoughts of many may be revealed” (Lk 2:34-35). The Holy Spirit revealed that Jesus would set the standard that would determine salvation or damnation and that He would suffer piercing Mary’s motherly heart.

The presentation of Jesus in the Temple is a central part of our Catholic Faith because it sets the stage for what is to come in terms of Jesus’ mission and that of His Church. Our relationship with Jesus determines whether we rise or fall, whether we live sinfully or gracefully, whether we prepare ourselves for Heaven or hell. He sets the standard that shows us what is good and what is evil. He is our Judge. As religiously faithful parents Mary and Joseph followed the Mosaic Law. As religiously faithful Catholics we must follow Jesus’s Law that includes the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes. By living according to them we will continue Jesus’ mission to save mankind. But, like Mary, we must be willing to endure suffering imposed by those who reject Jesus and His Church. The day we were presented to Jesus in His Church to be baptized we received the capacity to be what God wants us to be, namely intentional disciples of Jesus constantly giving both private and public witness to His presence in and among us in and through His Church. This we show the world that Jesus is the Light who enlightens each of us as to what is real, true, good, and beautiful. Thus we, in Jesus’ company, help to save the world. Only Jesus can raise us up from suffering and death, otherwise we sink into the depths of suffering and death – the death of supernatural faith, hope, and love. As you enter the Church building this Sunday, reflect on Mary and Joseph as they brought Jesus to the Temple along with your own presentation in the Church the day you were baptized and publicly declared a Christian and a gifted child of God. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #91 on:** February 05, 2025, 11:19:38 AM »

Fr Sean again.
God Always Equips Us to Do What He Asks

Someone said that God doesn’t look for qualified people to do His will; rather he qualifies those whom He calls. I thought about this when reading the story of Peter and his fellow fishermen who were encouraged by Jesus to cast their nets for a catch of fish once again even though they had caught nothing all night (Lk 5:1-11). He gave them the necessary faith to try again. At the sight of the catch Peter “fell at the knees of Jesus and said, ‘Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.’” In response Jesus said to Peter, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” Probably Peter and the other disciples didn’t have a clue as to what Jesus was saying. They would no longer be netting fish but rather spreading the net of Jesus’ Church to bring more people to Him so that He could save them from sin. Jesus called them to participate in this mission not because they were qualified but because He would give them what they needed to do what He asked. The Old and New Testaments are filled with examples of unqualified people whom God qualified to do His bidding. God called Isaiah to speak His word. Immediately Isaiah recognized his incompetence: “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips…” To qualify Isaiah for the task God sent an angel to free him from his incompetence and immediately he responded: “Here I am, send me!” (Is 6:1-8). Similarly Jeremiah protested when called to be a prophet, “Ah, Lord, I am too young…” and the Lord responded, “Have no fear … because I am with you to deliver you…” (Jer 1:6-8). Inspired by the Holy Spirit, St. Paul tells us, “It is not that we are entitled of ourselves to take credit for anything. Our sole credit is from God, who has made us qualified ministers of a new covenant, a covenant not of written law but of spirit … the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor 3: 5-6). God asks each of us to bring the Faith to others and we excuse ourselves by saying, “Oh, I could never do that!” or “I don’t know enough about my religion!” We must remember that God qualifies the unqualified, so we have no excuse.

God calls each of His children to be faithful members of His Church. In the Preface of the Holy Mass the priest proclaims on our behalf that, “It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give You thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God, through Christ our Lord.” We give thanks to God especially in the Holy Mass but also in our daily prayer and through sharing the gifts God has given to us. The most important gift He has given to us is that of supernatural Faith because it’s the foundation of our relationship with Him and with one another. Without faith there’s no hope and without hope we’re closed to God’s love. God gives us this gift of supernatural Faith to demonstrate to the world that Jesus is our Saviour and that we, through active membership in His Church, are being saved by Him. It’s this Faith that empowers us to pray with the Psalmist (138:1-8), “I will give thanks to You, O Lord, with all my heart, for You have heard the words of my mouth: in the presence of the angels I will sing Your praise; I will worship at Your holy temple and give thanks to Your Name…Your right hand save me. The Lord will complete what He has done for me; Your kindness, O Lord, endures forever; forsake not the work of Your hands.” It’s this Faith that motivates us to share the contents of this prayer with others.

As dutiful Christians who care about the salvation of others, you and I have an obligation to tell others about this Faith and how to receive it. St. Paul told the Corinthians (15:1-11) regarding the Gospel: “I handed it on to you as of first importance what I also received.” What he received was the knowledge of Jesus who died to save mankind from sinfulness and rose again showing that He had conquered sin and death. Handing it on was his first priority. Given the fact that Jesus’ Church has cells all over the world, why haven't the majority of the earth’s citizens converted to Jesus over the past two thousand years? Given the social media coverage of the world today there’s no excuse for anyone to claim that they haven’t heard of Jesus Christ. The problem is that it’s not enough to hear about Jesus; people need to be able to meet Jesus. How and where can that happen? It happens through Christians witnessing their Faith in Jesus through living the Faith at home, at work and through evangelization and catechesis that foster and reflect the supernatural gifts of Faith, Hope, and Charity. Why don’t Catholics witness the Faith that God has given to them? All too often, as I said, their excuse is that they don’t feel qualified. Whose fault is that? There’s no doubt that today ignorance of the Catholic Faith by even baptized Catholics is at an all-time low. Why?

The Church has produced Catechisms down through the centuries to help the members of the Church to understand the Catholic Biblical Faith and how to live it. Just as St. Paul saw that handing on the Faith was of first importance to him so the Pope, bishops, priests, deacons, parents, and godparents must see that handing on the Faith is of first importance to them. Because God qualifies those whom He calls, people in positions of authority in the Church, such as those mentioned above, have no excuse for not handing on the Faith, not a watered-down version or a culturally-friendly version but the true faith in all its authenticity and traditional integrity and continuity. Jesus’ teaching hasn’t changed. His Church’s teaching hasn’t changed because she is His Bride. Today it seems that the only sin that must be avoided is the truth enshrined in Jesus’ Church. Ignorance of Jesus and His Church’s teaching is the greatest enemy of Catholicism because it leaves Satan’s lies without any exposure. The Catholic schools and universities used to be instruments of the Church in her mission of handing on the Faith and helping to form Christian students. Sadly, that’s no longer true since most of these schools have consented to teach what the Church considers as immoral. The Church has always taught that parents are the primary educators of their children and at the baptism of their children they promise to raise them “in accord with the teaching of Jesus and His Church.” Thus they have a duty in justice to faithfully fulfil this promise. The bishops, priests, and deacons have a moral duty to assist the parents in evangelizing and catechizing their children. There’s a serious faith crisis in the Church today, namely a lack of belief that when God gives us a task He also provides the wherewithal to accomplish it. God always more than compensates for our feelings of inadequacy if we have faith in Him. Where there’s a will there’s a way. Therefore God gives the necessary graces to each of us to do what He asks of us and so we have no excuse when we don’t exercise our responsibilities. Each of us is responsible for bringing others to the Lord, beginning with our family. We are our brother’s and our sister’s keeper (Gen 4:1-9). Imagine someone going to hell because you didn’t share the Faith with him or her??? Remember the parable of the talents (Mt 25:14-30) and what happened to the man who buried his talent? (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #92 on:** February 13, 2025, 06:57:30 AM »

Fr Sean again.
Do You Feel Blessed or Cursed?
Do you feel blessed or cursed at this point in your life? How do you know? You’re blessed when you’re grateful. Gratitude signifies that a person feels blessed. What is a blessing? Biblically a blessing is a favor from God. The world sees a blessing as simply good luck. The root meaning of “blessing” is to be made holy. A curse is to impose evil on oneself or on others. It’s safe to say that no reasonable person wants to be cursed. Everyone wants to be blessed. But do they understand that to be blessed means to be made holy? When God favors you it’s not because you’re special but that He wants to make you holy. To be holy is to be like God, who is all-Holy and the only source of holiness. Remember that when you ask for a blessing you’re asking God to make you holy, through what you’re doing or will do. What does it mean to be holy? It means to be Christ-like. That is why God sent His Son to show us how to be holy like Him.
In the Old Testament God entered into a series of covenants with His people telling them, “I will be your God and you will be my people” (Jer 30:22). The covenant carried with it blessings and curses. The blessings followed fidelity to the covenant agreement and curses followed infidelity. Whether people were blessed or cursed depended on their choices to either be faithful to God. All blessings come from God while curses are brought down on the people through their freely chosen rejection of God’s love. So faith and blessings go together. Infidelity and curses go together.
Blessings are usually seen as coming from God. People pray to God to bless them. But many people also think that God curses them. There’s no doubt that blessings come from God because only God can make us holy. But curses do not come from Him. God doesn’t impose or wish evil on anyone. Neither does He deprive anyone of any good thing if they trust in Him. He is a provident God. His love for every human being is unconditional, and He wants to bless everyone to make them holy. The problem is that people don’t realize that because of their unrepentant sinfulness they bring curses on themselves. So to benefit from God’s blessing a person must be willing to change through repentance, seek forgiveness in the Sacrament of reconciliation, and bring his or her lifestyle in line with God’s will. God does not bless anyone who refuses to be holy. He cannot bless sin nor does He bless the sinner who remains in his or her sin. He blesses the sinner who is striving to be reconciled with Him and His Church. Sadly, some Church leaders have given false teaching concerning blessings saying that a priest can bless people in a sɛҳuąƖ relationship outside of marriage between a man and a woman or those involved in an adulterous relationship. Such teaching lacks a true understanding of blessing and causes scandal.
Since evil is the opposite of holiness, and cursing is the imposing or wishing of evil or harm on another, a curse is the visitation of the unholy whether it be on oneself or on others. Curses originate in ourselves. We bring curses on ourselves when we sin and continue to curse ourselves when we refuse to repent and seek reconciliation with God and His people. Jesus taught that it’s not what goes into a man’s mouth that makes him impure, but what comes out, since what comes out comes from his mind and heart (Mt 15:11). Blessings come from God, but we curse ourselves by being unfaithful to Him.
The Prophet Jeremiah tried (17:5-8), as God’s messenger, to raise the consciousness of his people regarding blessings and curses. He told them, “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord.” We curse ourselves when we make our ego, a creature or a thing the center of our lives. When we make God insignificant in our lives we become unholy and curse ourselves with inevitable disappointment and failure. The more we rely on God as the only source of our power and meaning the holier we become – the more blessed we are. The more we rely on ourselves or others or things as the source of success the more we turn away from God and the more unholy –cursed – we become. Why? Anyone or anything we look to for power and meaning other than God leads to disaster. No creature can fulfill the needs of another creature. Fulfillment of the creature is the remit of the Creator alone.
Jeremiah goes on to tell them what they need to do to be blessed. “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is in the Lord.” God blesses us, but to be the beneficiaries of His blessing we must be willing to trust and hope in Him to make us holy. If we’re not properly disposed, we won’t allow ourselves to benefit from His grace. It’s like offering a pearl to a pig.
Jesus’ Church gives us Jesus’ teaching regarding blessings and curses in St. Luke’s Gospel (6:17.20-26). Jesus tells us what is necessary in order to receive God’s blessing and how people bring curses on themselves. Jesus tells us that the blessed are those who are poor, hungry, grieving, and hated because of their faith. Being poor, hungry, sad, and persecuted don’t seem like blessings to reasonable people. They aren’t. Jesus isn’t endorsing poverty, hunger, sorrow, and persecution? What is He saying? God blesses those who have a spirit of poverty, namely an attitude whereby a person shares his or her time, talents, gifts, and money with those who don’t have the bare minimum demanded by human dignity. To be poor is to realize that every good thing comes from God and isn’t so much given to us as it is through us to others. Those who grieve for one’s own sins and the sins of others and hunger for God and the purification of a sinful world are blessed. Those who empathize with the suffering in this world are blessed. Those who stand up for their faith regardless of the obstacles or persecution are blessed by God. Such people rely on God as the center of their lives and source of their hope for the salvation of everyone.
Jesus goes on to identify those who deprive themselves of God’s blessing and curse themselves in the process. Who are they? Those who rely on their wealth to gratify their desires while ignoring those in need. The self-satisfied who are so obsessed with themselves that they ignore the hungry. The good-timers who are so caught up in their own entertainment that they ignore the grieving and those in sorrow. The populists who are so addicted to applause that they compromise their principles and lose their integrity.
We have to be careful that what we think is a blessing in this world doesn’t turn out to be a curse. What the world considers a blessing may very well be a curse. Jesus points out clearly that all these people whom he identified as ignoring the materially or spiritually poor, the hungry, the grief-stricken, and the weak will have the tables turned on them. Let’s make sure that when we ask God to bless us we’re not heaping curses on ourselves. It is the difference between seeking holiness and being selfish – between being God-centered and being self-centered. (fr sean)

Count Your Blessings
When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
And you will keep singing as the days go by.

When you look at others with their lands and gold,
Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold;
Count your many blessings—money cannot buy
Your reward in heaven, nor your home on high.

So, amid the conflict whether great or small,
Do not be discouraged, God is over all;
Count your many blessings, angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.
(Johnson Oatman, Jr. 1897)

cassini · « **Reply #93 on:** February 19, 2025, 01:26:39 PM »

Fr Sean again.
Are You an Earthly or a Heavenly Thinker/Feeler?

Jesus has made Christianity, visible in the Catholic Church’s teaching, worship, and service, the only hope for the salvation of mankind. G.K Chesterton noted that, “The problem with Christianity is not that it has been tried and found wanting; rather it has been found difficult and not tried.” In other words, Christianity is found difficult because it moves people from earthly to heavenly thinking. Even those of us who belong to Jesus’ Church are more earthly in our thinking than heavenly. Why? Because we live in the world and we are constantly exposed to worldly thinking. Christianity is found difficult because it doesn’t fit worldly thinking. Jesus founded His Church and calls us to be members in order to expose us to heavenly thinking. Christianity calls us to focus on the things of Heaven rather than on the things of this world (Mt 6:33). Paradoxically, the more we focus on getting to Heaven the more we’ll use earthly things in a manner that expresses our love for God.
I remember a bumper sticker that read, “Don’t get mad, get even”? We live in a worldly culture that says, “Please yourself.” The golden rule of, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Mt 7:12)” has been turned upside down to say, “Do unto others before they do unto you” “Look out for number one!” This is all earthly thinking. Christianity is foolishness to self-centered people. Why? Because they think they can perfect themselves and don’t need Christ. Christianity’s heavenly thinking preaches and demands charity, which demands generosity which demands love without expecting a reward.
St. Paul explains that the difference between Christian and worldly thinking is the difference between Adam and Christ Jesus (1 Cor 15:45-49). “The first man, Adam, became a living being, the last Adam (Christ) a life-giving spirit. … The first man was from earth, earthly; the second man, from Heaven. As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly, and as the Heavenly one, so also are the heavenly.” The first Adam sinned. The second Adam (Jesus) brought forgiveness. The earthly man thinks selfishly and sinfully. The heavenly Man thinks charitably. You and I bear the image of the earthly Adam, but through Jesus’ gift of Baptism into His Church, we now bear a new image – the image of Christ and a new way of thinking that is heavenly rather than earthly.
We see an example of Heavenly thinking in the story of how David spared the life of Saul who had sworn to kill him (Sam 26:2 -23). He found Saul asleep. His military leader, Abishi, urged David to kill the sleeping Saul. But, David refused saying, “Do not harm him, for who can lay hands on the Lord’s anointed and remain unpunished.” David expresses heavenly thinking. He replaced revenge with mercy and justice by being charitable toward his enemy.
To be a Christian is to be anointed by Christ in Baptism into His Church and, as a result, graced to think like Him. The meaning of the word “Christ” is “The anointed One” – specially chosen by God to be His representative on earth. Christ Jesus wasn’t only God’s special representative, He was His Son – His Word-made flesh. As God’s anointed One, Jesus bore the image of God over His earthly image. He is the perfect image of God in human form. The same is true of Christians. In Baptism God placed the image of Christ over our earthly image making us His adopted children, and heirs to His Kingdom. This makes us different in our thinking and action from all others who don’t bear the image of Jesus Christ over their earthly image.
Jesus points out (Lk 6:27-38) how the bearing of His image over our earthly image transforms our thinking and attitudes. Here we clearly see the difference between the worldly man and the stance of the spiritual man. We can also see why the world considers Christianity as senseless. The world mocks Christianity as “pie in the sky” or as Marx called it, “the opium of the people.”
Jesus taught His disciples to practice heavenly thinking. “To you who hear what I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” The world hears this and says, “Are you crazy? Do you know how long you would last in the world with that mentality? Don’t get mad, get even.” The world views the Christian way as the surest way to be a victim. Enemies must be killed, not loved; curse those who hate you, or hate them back; get revenge on those who mistreat you! This is the only way to win. Heavenly thinking, on the other hand, decries this attitude because it makes things worse.
Heavenly thinking calls us to show our enemy what God calls him to be. Christians, then, displace hate with love, revenge with mercy and justice, violence with peace, hurt with forgiveness, selfishness with generosity, etc. “To the one who strikes you on one cheek, offer him the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic.” Earthly thinking views this as weakness and silliness. “Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.” The world says, “What will you have left for yourself? Don’t you know that people will take advantage of you? People are basically selfish. What will happen when you have given away everything and are destitute? You must look out for yourself and not for others.” Ironically, the world makes itself a victim of its illusion of self-salvation. As Christians we’re never victims because we believe with St. Paul that, “if God is with us who can be against us” (Rom 8:31). As Christians we’re always victors because our heavenly thinking assures us of who alone can save us and we’re not dependent on the world for our security. The Christian way enables us to be in control because we know that God is in control of everything.
Christian thinking enables us to rise above the worldly fray by outdoing others in doing good and giving good example. “For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even unbelievers love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even unbelievers do the same.”
Jesus tells us, “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.” As Christians we must judge character, actions, and relationships to determine whether they’re good, right, and just. However, we never judge the person since we know that’s reserved to the individual and to God. Enlightened by Jesus we condemn bad character, wrong actions, and unjust relationships, but we never condemn the person since that’s God’s domain. The focus of Christian thinking and action is always on the improvement of one’s witness to the success of the Way of Christ in a world that scoffs at it.
Worldly thinking focuses on taking while Christian thinking emphasizes giving. “Give, and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in turn be measured out to you.” Here we find the answer to the question why does Christianity lead to happiness while a worldly outlook doesn’t. Christianity focuses on giving, which requires reliance on God’s providence. The world focuses on taking because it never has enough. It’s in giving that we become aware of our riches and give thanks to God for them. It’s in grabbing that we impoverish others and take what doesn’t belong to us. What we do to others we do to ourselves. If we don’t give, we won't get. The giver is always a winner. To help Jesus save mankind we must practice heavenly rather than earthly thinking (Col 3:2). (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #94 on:** February 26, 2025, 11:53:59 AM »

Fr Sean again.
Are You Living According to the Jesus’ Wisdom

Wise living follows from making decisions that ensure we gain more than we lose, especially in the long term. Foolish living is about losing more than we gain. It’s therefore very important that we determine what’s gain and what’s loss for us. Reasonable people would probably say that gain is anything that enhances life and loss is what undermines it. But what enhances life and what undermines it? The purpose of life is to die well, and that means dying in the friendship of Jesus Christ since He is the door to Heaven.

The Dictionary defines wisdom as the ability to make a decision based on the combination of knowledge, experience, and intuitive understanding or the ability to know and apply spiritual truths. Where do we find spiritual truths? Lots of religions, groups, and individuals offer “spiritual truths,” but they don’t specify where they come from. So how do we know they’re true? Spiritual truths come from the Author of truth, namely Jesus Christ who revealed Himself as “the Truth” (Jn 14:6). Reason says that to discern what’s spiritual truth, we must go to the origin of Truth, namely Jesus Christ. Living wisely, then, means living according to what Jesus teaches about what perfects our life, brings us happiness, and assures that our life won’t end and that we will be fulfilled, free from sin and death.

Wise living involves making choices that combine knowledge and experience of Jesus who frees us from our human limitations that are either imposed or self-imposed upon us. Freedom is probably our most important value, maybe even more than life itself. It’s the ability to be what God created us to be, namely His image and likeness. Wisdom and freedom go hand-in-hand. From a secular perspective, Don Miguel Ruiz, in his book, “Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom,” identifies what he calls “four agreements” that help a person live wisely. 1st: “Be impeccable with your word” by speaking with integrity, making sure that what you say is true, helpful, and kind. 2nd: “Don’t take anything personally” by realizing that what other people say and do reflects their choices, not yours, and so avoid needless suffering. 3rd: “Don’t make assumptions” by communicating with others as clearly as possible in order to eliminate misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. 4th: “Always do your best” in every circuмstance and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret. Ruiz thinks that, from a psychological and emotional perspective, by making these four agreements with yourself and expecting others to do likewise people live wisely. This seems insightful but there’s more to us that the psyche and emotions. We are body-soul creatures with a spiritual soul that yearns for God. Therefore we need to know how to live wisely as spiritual persons created by God.

Spiritual wisdom is the ability to know and apply spiritual truths. Spiritual truths reflect the nature of the Holy Spirit and His impact on our human spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. Our human spirit reflects our identity, attitude, character, worldview, what we say and do at any given moment in our life. The truth about the Holy Spirit is that He is the third Person of the Holy Trinity and is the personification of the unconditional love shared by God the Father and God the Son. The truth about our spirit is that it is imperfect and prone to selfishness and sin. Our spirit needs the Holy Spirit to purify, strengthen, inspire, and perfect it. Our spirit reflects what’s in our heart, which in turn reflects the state of our soul that is either fulfilled or deprived in its yearning for God. Therefore, knowing and applying spiritual truths means allowing the Holy Spirit to envelop our spirit and bring us to Jesus present in His Church. We know God personally through Jesus Christ. We come to know our self through self-discovery in our relationships and experiences. The more we come to know God the more we come to know and understand our self as His image and likeness. The more we know God the more we know our strengths and weaknesses. Jesus, the model of what it means to be perfectly human, teaches us the truth about what we need to be a fully human and fully alive person, imagining and acting like Jesus.

Knowing and applying spiritual truths make us aware that we need Jesus if we’re to live wisely and freely. Experience, if we’re honest, tells us that to be impeccable in our words, avoid taking things personally, avoid making bad assumptions, and committed to doing our best in every situation requires help that we can’t give our self. That help comes from God. Jesus asks us, “Can the blind lead the blind … can the disciple be superior to the teacher … can good fruit come from a rotten tree …?” (Lk 6:39-45). The answer is a resounding “No!” Jesus points out that “a good man out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but and evil man out of the store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks” (Lk 6:45). What’s in our heart comes from the thoughts we put in our mind. “The fruit of the tree shows the care it has had, so too does one’s speech disclose the bent of one’s mind” (Sir 27:4-7). Our human thoughts are influenced by the world and the culture in which we live and are changeable as the world and culture changes. Our human thoughts aren’t sufficiently grounded in truth without the help of the Holy Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit who leads our spirit to embrace Jesus Christ who is truth personified. By following Jesus, present in His Church, we’re able to use His truth as the filter to distinguish truth from lies. Making Jesus’ truth the lens through which we view everything, we can, in the words of St. Paul, “be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord. Knowing that in the Lord (y)our labour is not in vain” (1 Cor 15:54-58), and we will make wise decisions. Jesus promises us that, “Any man who follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12).

By living according to Jesus’ teaching nothing that we say or do is in vain. Then we’ll speak with integrity and courage; we won’t be victims by taking things personally; we won’t assume what we don’t know, and we’ll put our heart into doing our best. Through meditating on God’s Word as interpreted and taught by Jesus’ Church we’ll fill our mind with thoughts that open our heart to divine goodness and the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Then with joy we’ll proclaim with the Psalmist, “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praise to His Name, Most High, to proclaim Your kindness at dawn and Your faithfulness throughout the night … they that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God…They shall bear fruit even in old age; vigorous and sturdy shall they be, declaring how just is the Lord, my rock, in whom there is no wrong” (Ps 92:2-3, 14-16). This expression of Faith generates enthusiasm and a zest for eternal life.

The Christian life is a life lived wisely. It’s a productive life because the decisions always lead to gain rather than loss, especially regarding perfection, happiness, and a life that lasts forever. The application of spiritual truths revealed by Jesus defines and refines us so we can withstand the trials and tribulations of life on earth. Christianity makes us wise with the truth that comes from God who never fails us and is ever-faithful to His promises to love us unconditionally. The person living wisely makes the most of the present and looks forward with high hopes to the future – a future that brings a perfection, a happiness, freedom, and a peace, and a love that never ends. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #95 on:** March 05, 2025, 11:53:56 AM »

Fr Sean again.
Lent: Spiritual Spring Cleaning

I have the greatest respect for homemakers. Trying to keep a house clean is a never-ending chore. It’s amazing how dust keeps gathering on furniture, clothes, floors, etc., almost immediately after they’re cleaned. I guess it’s a reminder that our body is dust and into dust it will return (Gen 3:29). There’s another kind of dust or grit that accuмulates in our heart, namely sin. Just as we need to wash our body, floors, windows, clothes, cars, etc., we also need to clean our hearts. This is why Jesus’ Church gives us the Liturgical season of Lent. It’s a time to spring-clean our soul, both as individuals, as family and Church community. Our spiritual soul gives us the faculties of intellect and free will. The choices we make through thinking and will determine the kind of person we become. If our heart isn’t clean because our soul has been stained by sin, then our thinking becomes distorted and we will make bad choices. We make bad decisions by choosing what looks good but turns out to be bad. Lent is a time to discover, through the light of God’s grace, the sad state of our soul by examining what is in our heart and asking the Lord to purify it. Our thoughts produce our feelings, which spawn actions that identify us as persons of either good or bad character; people who practice virtues or vices.

Spring-cleaning our sin-stained soul is about exposing and getting rid of the evil in our heart by replacing our vices with virtues, our lies with truth. Sin is a word, action, attitude, desire, or pattern of behaviour that offends truth, reason, and right conscience. God hates sin. “God shows His anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness” (Rom 1:18-32). Sin is a failure to genuinely love God, neighbour, and our self. To expose and rid ourselves of sin we need truth. Sin is the lie that we can make ourselves happy. Jesus Christ is the truth about what it means to be truly human, fully alive and fulfilled. He is God-become-man. It’s in embracing Jesus - “the Truth,”- that sin is exposed (Jn 14:6). Sin is always a lie, and truth always exposes lies. That’s why the demons ran from Jesus. Jesus calls Satan the “father of lies.” “He brought death to man from the beginning, and has never based himself on truth; the truth is not in him. Lying speech; he is a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44). A lie is the basis of every sin. How? A sin is putting faith in someone or something other than God to satisfy our desires, which is a lie since only the Creator can fully satisfy the needs of the creature. Sin is a lie because it masquerades as something good for us. The temptation of Jesus by Satan brings us face-to-face with the battle between truth and lies, good and evil. Jesus calls us to counter our tendency to self-gratification with fasting; our tendency to be prideful by being prayerful; and our tendency to be greedy by giving alms.

Preparing for His public ministry, Jesus fasted and prayed in the desert for 40 days. Satan figured Jesus was at least physically weak and tried to tempt Him by appealing to His bodily need for food and the human need for power and to prove that God can be trusted. St. Luke (4:1-13) depicts Satan presenting himself as Jesus’ friend offering to fulfil His needs. This is how Satan always presents himself to us. We don’t sin because it looks and feels bad, rather we do it because it looks and feels good in the moment, like the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden looked delicious to Adam and Eve. Satan always appeals to our desire for immediate self-gratification. Jesus resisted Satan’s temptations by shining God’s Word – the Truth – on them and exposing them for the lies they were. To cleanse our heart we must let God’s Word fill our soul thereby exposing the lies we tell ourselves in order to justify our sins. This exposure opens us to the grace of repentance and the gift of forgiveness which Jesus made available in His Church’s Sacrament of Reconciliation. This we recommit ourselves to Jesus as our Truth and the true nourishment of our soul.

We all struggle with an inherited fallen nature that makes us susceptible to the lie that power, prestige, possessions, popularity and pleasure will make us happy. Satan promised these to Jesus if only He would put His faith in him rather than in God. But Jesus, as the Truth, saw through the devil’s deceitfulness and exposed his promises as fraudulent. Power, popularity, possessions, and pleasure actually undermine our happiness, because they make us addicted to them and we lose our freedom. Only God’s word is the bread that satisfies our hunger for eternal happiness. Only by worshipping God and serving Him will we receive true power and glory for they belong to God alone. “The Kingdom, the power and the glory are Yours now and forever.” God is trustworthy and our Protector. We don’t need to test His care for us by pulling stupid stunts.

What lies does Satan use to tempt you and me to commit sin? He recommends that if something feels good we should do it. Something might feel good in the short term but can turn out very bad in the long term. He urges us to live only for the moment. Yes, it’s important to make the most of the present, but ignoring the past and dismissing future consequences is disastrous. Living only for the moment is conducive to selfishness and ignores our responsibility to others in the future. Finally, Satan emphasizes the necessity to look out only for ourselves. That translates into conceitedness and selfishness. Putting yourself first before everyone is the opposite of what Jesus teaches, namely “if you want to be the greatest, be the servant of all” (Mt 20: 26). These are the lies that underlie our sinfulness. These are the lies we buy into in the hope of achieving happiness, but they only bring us disappointment and betrayal. This Lent, let the Holy Spirit enlighten our thinking and examine our choices to expose the lies that motivate us to sin, so that we can spring-clean our heart through making Jesus the honoured Guest of our soul, so that we can think clearly and make good choices. Then, we will understand the words of the Psalmist (91: 1-2): “You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and fortress, my God in whom I trust.” (fr sean)

St. Peter’s Teaching for a Spiritually Productive Lent
1. “Love one another intensely from a [pure] heart.” 1 Peter 1:22

Love can involve feelings, but it is an act of the will; it means seeking and desiring what is best for the other person. That includes everyone around us—the sick, the elderly, the preborn, and the people we don’t particularly like. Love is not just reserved for our friends and family. Furthermore, love takes sacrifice. If we are going to love intensely with a pure heart, we must show that love by giving of ourselves, by walking with others through their suffering, by spending time with others, by giving our time to those who need it, and by truly listening when people need a friend.

2. “Rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, insincerity, envy, and all slander.” 1 Peter 2:1

This may seem like a tall order to some, as ridding ourselves of these vices can be incredibly difficult. But think of a life riddled with these sins. It’s the very opposite of the love St. Peter highlighted. When we allow ourselves to be overcome with lies and hatred, we give the devil a firm foothold on not just our lives but also our bodies. We allow him to direct our words and deeds. By doing so, we push God further away. So, if we truly want to advance the Kingdom of God on earth, we will , as faithful Catholics, do our best to act as Jesus would and to treat others with the respect and dignity they deserve as God’s children.

3. “Give honour to all, love the brothers and sisters.” 1 Peter 2:17

What does it mean to love the Church? Remember that love requires action, so loving our Church community means taking action to help one another when in need. Charity begins at home. But we can’t simply stay inside our homes and never give of ourselves to others. God asks us to think often about what others need and to perform what the Church calls “The Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy, e.g., visiting the sick, counselling the doubtful, admonishing the sinner, feeding the hungry, visiting the homebound, etc. These acts of love allow Jesus to shine His light on the world while building His Kingdom here on earth.

4. “All of you, be of one mind, sympathetic, loving toward one another, compassionate, humble.” 1 Peter 3:8

Jesus taught the Golden Rule in His “Sermon on the Mount” – do unto others as we would have them do unto us. This rule seems to be forgotten in today’s world. Compassion and sympathy are in short supply today. The anonymity of social media has allowed people to say vile things to others, not caring about the damage it does. We must use our gift of speech to build others up, judge what is evil but also be merciful, not to tear down a person’s character. We must use our words to speak the truth about our Catholic Faith and God’s love, justice, and mercy experienced in the grace of repentance and the gift of repentance. This is how we truly love others.

5. “Be hospitable to one another without complaining.” 1 Peter 4:9

If, when we do something for others, we do it with a complaint on our lips or in our hearts, we aren’t truly doing this service out of love. This takes effort and practice, but we must lean to joyfully give of ourselves through sharing our time, treasure, and talent. We must thank God for the opportunities he gives us to put others before our own convenience. Think about those who helped you when you were sick or injured and how their caring made a difference in your recovery. Mother Teresa said that she saw the face of God in all the people she cared for. Let’s follow her example and look for God in everyone around us (His bleeding and Divine Face) in everyone around us, especially those who need our help.

Lent is a time to examine what kind of person we are becoming through our behaviour and make positive changes – changes that we will make part of our life from here on out. Jesus calls us to be like Him – He gave the ultimate sacrifice – Himself – and in a truly painful and horrible way nailed to a tree. His agony and His death were pure gifts to us so that we can spend eternity with Him in a glorified manner. (from the Internet)

cassini · « **Reply #96 on:** March 12, 2025, 04:14:41 PM »

Fr Sean again.
Is a True Relationship with Jesus Your Ultimate Concern?

A woman recently sent me a text with the question: What are you willing to die for? It set me to reflecting on what is my greatest concern as I look to the future? Concern is defined as that which affects our happiness, or wellbeing. It can also be an expression of anxiety or caring for someone or something. Jesus calls us this 2nd week of Lent to reflect on how much concern we show for our relationship with Him. We have lots of concerns such as family, work, health, finances, children, spouse, neighbours, growing old, school, career, physique, appetite, food, addictions, or the future. But what’s our ultimate concern? What would we be willing to die for? Why is that important? Because our ultimate concern, our greatest value, is what consciously or unconsciously directs us in dealing with our day-to-day concerns. What do you want most for yourself and those you love and how will you attain it? Your answer will tell you much about your life’s goal. Our ultimate concern identifies what we think we’re here on earth for and what will bring us lasting happiness.

Lent is a time to identify our desires and direct them in such a way that satisfying them deepens our relationship with Jesus. All too frequently we’re driven to satisfy our physical desires rather than our soul’s desires. We’re much more concerned with pleasing our bodily desires, our ego, than we are with addressing our soul’s desire for God. Think about how much time you spend on thinking about food, what, when, where, and with whom you’re going to eat or cook. Eating is a major concern for everyone because it’s necessary for the health of our body. But it can become such a concern that it drowns out the cry of a starving soul. St. Paul told the Philippians: “Don’t make your stomach your God.” We can have a well-fed body but a malnourished soul and it shows in our selfish attitude. No matter how concerned we might be with feeding our body, we should be much more concerned about properly feeding our soul. The seven deadly sins, namely pride, anger, lust, greed, sloth, envy, jealousy, gluttony and an obtuse spirit reflect a soul that is famished. That’s why God, who fully revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, is essential in our life. He is the necessary food for our soul. We can satisfy our physical desires but only Jesus can satisfy our spiritual desires. An ill-nourished soul always causes life to be sluggish, no matter how well-fed the body might be. Our ultimate concern should be how we can have a healthy soul so that we can live fully and joyfully.

Since God created our soul, we must turn to Him to nourish it. Our spiritual soul is what makes us human and is the essence of who we at in the depths of our being, our self. Our parents created our body but God directly infused a spiritual soul into our body at the moment of conception, which makes us God’s creation and not just our parents’ child. To be concerned about our soul is to be concerned about our self – the kind of person we are and want to become. The more we ask God to nourish our soul the more positive and self-possessed we will be. A miserable, angry, mean, greedy, lustful, slothful, prideful, jealous, envious, gluttonous self always signifies a mal-nourished soul. Jesus alone can feed our soul and free us from these vices by replacing them with virtues, making us pure and wholesome. He has made Himself the “Bread of Life” for our soul (Jn 6:35).

To ensure that we possess a well-nourished soul, a healthy self, we need to realize that God created us to be citizens of Heaven and therefore Heaven should be our ultimate concern. “As you well know, we have our citizenship in Heaven; it is from there that we eagerly await the coming of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will give a new form to this lowly body of ours and remake it according to the pattern of His glorified body, by His power to subject everything to Himself” (Phil 3:20-21). God the Father makes us citizens of Heaven through Baptism into Jesus’ Church where He transfigures our fallen nature and makes us adopted brothers and sisters of Jesus through the love of the Holy Spirit. A good citizen is recognized by making a positive impact on the world. That means you and I must strive to make a positive impact on the Church and the world. To be good citizens of Heaven we must freely subject ourselves to Christ as members of His Church by doing what He teaches. Why? Because, in the words of the Psalmist, Jesus is, “…my light and my salvation … the Lord is my life’s refuge; of whom should I be afraid?” (Ps 27:1). As our light, Jesus focuses us on what makes us fully human, namely our soul. The more we focus on our soul’s health the more we will also maintain a healthy body and keep its desires in check, thus avoiding self-gratification and binging. We want our body to be the means through which we express who we are in our soul, what makes us who we truly are. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation Jesus shines His light on us to expose our sinfulness, so that we can repent and be cleansed by His grace, thus refreshing our soul. What affects our soul affects our body and vice versa. Sin is a sign that we’re abusing our soul by overindulging our bodily and its blind desires. Jesus asks, “What gain, then, is it for a man to have won the whole world and suffered the loss of his soul?” (Lk 9:25).

Jesus’ light is always for our good, as experienced by Peter, James and John when they saw Him transfigured before them. Peter, totally awed by the vision, exclaimed, “Master, how good it is for us to be here” (Lk 9:33).Then God revealed to them, “This is my Son, my Chosen One. Listen to Him” (Lk 9:35). This is why Jesus gently chided Martha when she was upset that Mary sat listening to Jesus while she felt alone preparing dinner: “Martha, Martha you are concerned and upset about many things; one thing only is required. Mary has chosen the better portion and she shall not be deprived of it” (Lk 10:41-42). Martha’s concern was different from |Mary’s. Martha’s concern was preparing dinner. Mary’s concern was spending time listening to Jesus. You and I may be concerned or anxious about many things, but what should concern us most is being with Jesus Christ. This calls for us to sacrifice our time to be with Him in prayer, adoration, and Holy Mass. Only He can nourish our soul and make us happy. This week, examine your many concerns and decide to make your relationship with Jesus your ultimate concern. That will put all your other concerns and anxieties in perspective making sure you won’t become overwhelmed. If you want to be happy, let your ultimate concern be about deepening your relationship with Jesus Christ in His Church. It’s always fulfilling to be with Jesus listening to Him because He has the words of eternal life. But for that to happen, my relationship with Him as a member of His Church must be my ultimate concern! Because Jesus is the only one who died for love of me, He is the only one worth dying for love of Him. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #97 on:** March 19, 2025, 12:18:20 PM »

Fr Sean again.
Without Repentance There’s No Forgiveness

In the lives of the Church’s saints the one thing all have in common is that the closer they came to God the more conscious they became of their sinfulness and their need for repentance. Lent is a special time when God gives us the grace through His Church to prepare ourselves to be like Simon and help Jesus carry His cross. The more we focus on empathizing with Jesus on the Way of the Cross the more we experience the great sacrifice He made on our behalf so that we might be saved from our sinfulness. The more we see how much He suffered for us the more we will be motivated to stop nailing Him to the cross by our sins which are our refusals to love Him and do what He tells us. Repentance and a commitment to change our sinful behaviour are necessary for forgiveness. Jesus reminds us that “if you do not repent, you will perish” (Lk 13:5) because forgiveness without repentance means that we aren’t truly sorry and therefore we’re neither receptive to the grace of forgiveness nor willing to change our sinful behaviour. Remember that God gives us only so many chances to get our lives in order so let’s not procrastinate.

Repentance is the freely chosen act of recognizing and deeply regretting our wrongdoing, accompanied by a deep desire to atone for the damage our sins have done to ourselves and to others. Apart from its spiritual value, repentance is essential for the mental and emotional wellbeing of our relationships with God and with one another. The spiritual writer, Thomas a Kempis, noted that “the acknowledgment of our weakness is the first step toward repairing our loss.” In repenting we face who we are and what we need to change if we want to be truly faithful members of Jesus’ Church. Jesus’ Church emphasizes the importance of repentance, which must be heartfelt, by teaching us that His “call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets before Him, does not aim first at outward works, ‘sackcloth and ashes,’ fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Without this, such penances remain sterile and false …” (CCC 1430). Remember that “Nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him impure; that which comes out of him, and only that, constitutes impurity …wicked designs come from the deep recesses of the heart” (Mk 7:15, 21). It is what’s in our heart that drives us either toward good or bad.

To repent is to change one’s heart. How? The Holy Spirit tells us, “Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God” (Joel 2:12-13). Jesus reminds us that “where your treasure is there is your heart also” (Mt 6:21). Repentance comes from recognizing God as our most precious treasure and to Whom we give our whole heart. God wants our whole heart, not just a piece of it, because He wants to inflame our heart with His to bless, heal, and perfect our flawed humanity. Jesus has no time for half-heartedness. “But because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out of my mouth” (Rev 3:16). Repentance is about coming back to God with ALL our heart. What does this involve?

Jesus’ Church teaches us that repentance involves a radical conversion. To be radical is to get to the root of something, the basics, and the kernel of who we are, namely sinners who can’t save ourselves and are in desperate need of God to raise us up from the corruption. The Church teaches us that, “Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end to sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and the resolution to change one’s life, with hope in God’s mercy and trust in the help of His grace” (CCC 1431). The motivation for this “radical reorientation” comes from God Himself through Jesus present in His Church by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit promises us that by repenting God “pardons all your iniquities, heals all your ills. He redeems your life from destruction, crowns you with kindness and compassion … secures justice and the rights of the oppressed … so surpassing is His kindness toward those who fear Him” (Ps 103:1-11).

We hear a lot about inclusion today but we don’t hear much about repentance and the fact that if we don’t repent God doesn’t include us in His Church. Why? God’s Word is neither taught or preached by many bishops and priests, nor understood by many Church members. Relativism and self-absorption along with the illusion of saving the planet are our downfall. We’re so stuck today on thinking that we must save the planet that we can’t risk admitting our flaws and our sinfulness demonstrating that we can’t even save ourselves. Without God there is only death on our horizon. Instead of repenting for our sins we avoid them by making everything permissible even though it leaves us stressed, lonely, and isolated in superficial, broken or perverted relationships. We suffer from the illusion that we can heal and forgive ourselves. St. Paul warns us: “Whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall” (1 Cor 10:12). But without God’s Spirit we can’t help but fall since we’re all sinners. Sin is like cancer; even if we don’t admit that we’ve sinned it still eats away at our soul and disposes our heart to Satan’s wiles that cause our humanity to deteriorate. Again, like cancer, the sooner we recognize sin’s existence in us and repent the better are our chances of healing and living joyfully.

Repentance is powerful. In a homily, St. John Chrysostom (c. 388 A.D.) noted that repentance, “alone will turn a wolf into a sheep, make a publican a preacher, turn a thorn into an olive, make a debauchee a religious fellow.” It brings about a radical reorientation of our heart toward the things of God expressed in faith, hope, and charity. To facilitate this need for repentance in preparation for forgiveness Jesus bestowed on His Church, through her bishops and priests, the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This is a powerful expression of God’s initiative in saving us from our sinfulness. Here He enables us to enter into a more intimate relationship with Jesus and through Him with one another empowered by the Holy Spirit. The grace of repentance and the gift of forgiveness are two of the most important gifts Jesus brought to this fallen world. Repentance calls for an examination of conscience: Where have I failed to lovingly obey God’s Commandments and live Jesus’ Beatitudes along with fidelity to the laws of the Church? Let’s remember to repent, confess our sins, and experience the forgiveness of God that brings us a refreshed sense of wellbeing. You and I, with a repentant heart seeking forgiveness can experience God actually saving us when the priest pronounces the holy words of Absolution in the Sacrament of Penance. It is in the repentance and forgiveness of sins that we know that God is saving us in that moment (Lk 1:77). (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #98 on:** March 27, 2025, 01:43:42 PM »

Fr Sean again.
The Marvelous Ministry of Reconciliation

The Church has now passed the midpoint of her holy season of Lent. In Jesus’ Name she speaks to us about the ministry of reconciliation. Reconciliation etymologically means “calling together again.” Thus the ministry of reconciliation is actually God the Father calling us together again after we’ve separated ourselves from Him and from one another through our sinfulness. He initiates that call through Christ. Thus God wants us to be "re-newed" - freed from the corruption of sin - and restored to His original design for us. St Paul (2 Cor 5:17-21) under the guidance of the Holy Spirit informs us that, “Whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.” Jesus replaces the old things reflecting the way of sin with new things that reflect the way of grace. “And all of this is from God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation …”

Grace is God’s presence to us in the Person of Jesus, present in His Church in His glorified body, making us new through rebirth into a new Kingdom giving us a new hope – the hope of Heavenly happiness. He brought the ministry of reconciliation to the fallen human world. Christ is God’s Reconciler. Jesus is the means through which the broken relationship between human beings and God has been mended through the New Covenant that we break when we sin. That renewal of the Covenant relationship between God and us is experienced in reconciliation and celebrated in the Holy Mass. Reconciliation is the visible sign that forgiveness is real and relationships have not just been mended but made new, deepened and enriched because of confession, contrition, satisfaction, and absolution from sin. All this Jesus makes possible in and through His Catholic Church.

If Jesus is the reconciler, His followers must be both beneficiaries and promoters of reconciliation. This is one key way that we show that we are His followers and participants in the salvation of the world. We can truly represent Jesus only if we thoroughly believe in and promote reconciliation in our families, parishes, workplaces, wherever we are. His greatest gift to mankind is the gift of reconciliation which He brought about in uniting divinity and humanity in Himself – one Person with two natures. We, as His followers, must be promoters of this essential gift necessary for salvation from sin. Reconciliation is about the reunification of humanity and divinity.

St. Paul reminds us that we “are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us.” Appealing for what? God appeals to everyone to seek the grace of repentance and the gift of forgiveness. The word “ambassador” means servant or minister.

What does it mean to be an ambassador of Christ? In the secular world an ambassador represents a political government or group and serves its interests by promoting its values. An ambassador of Christ serves the interests of Jesus’ Church by explaining and promoting and defending its values. As Christ’s ambassadors, we must be able to give reasonable explanations of the teachings of Christ and policies and disciplines of His Church. Bishops, priests, and deacons have a special role as ambassadors of Christ because Holy Orders leave an indelible mark on their souls designating their unique service and ministry to the laity.

Every member of the Church, whether ordained or lay, is obligated to give witness and hand on the Faith. Therefore each of us must be trustworthy in serving Jesus according to our ministry. Trustworthiness requires us to be obedient to Christ as faithful Catholics, honest, reliable, loyal, and people of integrity unafraid to confront those who would mock or destroy Catholic teaching. An ambassador must have the utmost respect for his or her government or organization. As Christ’s ambassadors, we must have total respect for Him and His Church. Respect requires us to always be civil, courteous, decent, and tolerant, but never at the expense of His truth. It also requires us to be autonomous by taking responsibility for ourselves. We must make sure that our sense of honesty is not diluted by self-interest, self-protection, self-deception, and self-righteousness.

An ambassador has an acute sense of responsibility to be loyal to his or her government or organization. As Christ’s ambassadors, we must be responsible and loyal to Him and His Church. Responsibility calls for accountability and a commitment to excellence. This calls for prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance enhanced by the supernatural virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity. The ambassador as a servant of Jesus in His Church must pray daily in the words of the Psalmist (34:2-7), “Glorify the Lord with me, let us together extol His Name.”

Jesus is God’s Ambassador and the Reconciler par excellence. We hear Him in action this Sunday in His Church’s proclamation of the parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:1-2, 11-12). In this story, Jesus demonstrates what it means to be an ambassador of reconciliation in the person of the father who willingly welcomes back his repentant son and pleads with his hard-hearted and unforgiving older son to be happy that the family is intact once again. Jesus reveals that His Father is a God of reconciliation waiting for us to repent and seek His forgiveness for our selfishness. Jesus is His Ambassador calling all people to come together and be united with Him in His Church. We as the Church are Jesus’ ambassadors. Thus we must be believers in reconciliation both for ourselves and others. This is our challenge during this season of Lent. The unity of the world is depending on the example of the Church members practicing repentance and forgiveness through the grace of God. How privileged we are to have the great Sacrament of Reconciliation available to us that engenders hope in our hearts despite our proneness to sin! Let us benefit from it frequently so that, as God reconciles us to Him and to His Church, we in turn may be able to genuinely call others to benefit from this divine grace that reflects God’s justice and mercy in the ministry of reconciliation. (fr sean)

cassini · « **Reply #99 on:** April 02, 2025, 11:31:18 AM »

Fr Sean again.
Let Go of Your Past and Let God into Your Present

Everything we do is motivated by the belief that there is some benefit in it for us. The moment we see that there’s no benefit in it, either directly or indirectly, we stop doing it. A psychiatrist asked his patient what was the problem. Patient: “It’s my wife, she’s historical!” Doctor: “You mean, hysterical?” Patient: “No! I mean historical. She keeps bringing up the past.” Alcoholics Anonymous have a slogan, “Let go and let God.” God is the One who is always present – Yahweh. Holding on to the past prevents us from living in and making the most of the present. The value of the past is that it shows us our mistakes and sinfulness so that we can avoid them in the present. So seeing that what we thought benefited us in the past actually was bad for us, we’re now able to see through its false promise and the good we thought was in it for us was actually evil disguised as good. If we’re to be free we must let go of the past and let God perfect us in the present rather than trying to perfect and make ourselves happy. We must neither become victims or prisoners of our past nor fearful of our future. Refusing to let go of the past or put aside fear of the future robs us of making the necessary changes in the present, which is the only time we have to live life as fully as possible.

Jesus’ Church alerts us to God’s call not to be stuck in the past but to focus on what He is doing in us in the present. “Thus says the Lord,…Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new! … I put water in the desert and rivers in the wasteland for my chosen people to drink…” (Is 43:16-21). What is He doing in and for us that’s new? He slakes our spiritual thirst for Him. The human spirit longs for the divine Spirit for its refreshment, encouragement, hope, perfection, passion, and joy. But this requires us to surrender to God, admitting that we can’t move forward and be happy without the Holy Spirit in us watering our soul. That means we must be present to God who helps us to live fully in the present, having learned what to avoid from the past. We can’t undo the past, but we can learn from it what’s good or bad for us. What we think will make us the happiest determines what we see as good or bad for us. What we think is good for us, we allow to control us. The only one to whom we give control over us without losing our freedom is God.

The Psalmist prayed, “The Lord has done great things for us, we are glad indeed … Those that sow in tears shall reap rejoicing” (Ps 126:3, 5). What great things has the Lord done for you and me? He sent a Saviour to save us from our sinful past, so we can let it go in order to enter a peaceful present with a joyful future in which to hope. That’s why St. Paul proclaimed, “I believe nothing will happen that will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…. I look on everything as so much rubbish if only I can have Christ and be given a place in Him. I am no longer trying for perfection by my own efforts … but I want only the perfection that comes from faith in Christ, and is from God and based on faith” (Phil 3:8-9). The great thing Jesus did for Paul was to help him see that what he thought would benefit him as a Jew would actually lead him away from the God he thought he was serving. Jesus helped St. Paul to let go of his past beliefs and embrace God’s new revelation that would bring him to Heaven. Having let go of his past that he thought would benefit him, Paul concentrated on the new way to perfection through faith in Christ Jesus. “My entire attention is on the finish line as I run toward the prize toward which God calls me – life on high in Jesus Christ. All you who are spiritually mature must have this attitude” (Phil 3:14-15). St. Paul let go of his past and let God enter his present showing him what would truly perfect him, namely unity with Jesus, now and forever.

St. John’s Gospel demonstrates why Paul considered everything he relied upon as rubbish compared to being in the presence of Jesus. We see the great things God does in the story of the woman caught committing adultery. She’s both a victim and a prisoner of her past immorality. According to Jєωιѕн law her past actions were punishable by stoning to death. The scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus to determine her fate based on her past. They didn’t really care about the woman but were using her to try and trap Jesus into breaking the law. If He didn’t condemn her they could accuse Him of breaking the Mosaic Law and have Him put to death. If He condemned her they could ridicule His teaching on mercy and forgiveness. Jesus saw through them and went to the root of the matter, namely the hypocrisy of sinners calling for punishment of other sinners. He challenged the accusers to reflect on their own sins: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (Jn 8:7). They all walked away beginning with the oldest. No one is without sin and, therefore, no one is in a position to cast a stone at anyone else. Jesus was the only one without sin, and the only one who could cast a stone of condemnation. So He asked the woman, “Has no one condemned you? … Nor do I condemn you. You may go, but from now on don’t do sin anymore” (Jn 8:10-11). Jesus didn’t come to condemn the sinner to death but to call the sinner to repentance and to amend his or her life. He condemns sin in all its forms but not human beings. He loves the sinner to repent and seek His forgiveness. He saved her from her sinful past and told her to let it go, so she could enter a grace-filled present and a hope-filled future free from the slavery to her sinfulness. He came to tell us that our sin which we do because we think it benefits us actually destroys us. He told the woman not to sin anymore because if she did there might not be anyone to save her. Jesus helps us let go of our sinful past, our tendency to judge others as worse than us, and recover the freedom God wants us to have, namely the freedom that comes from growing in His image and likeness witnessing justice, peace, and mercy to others. Let go of your past and let God enter your present with His promise of a bright future as a faithful member of His Holy Church. He does new things in you when you meet Him in the Sacrament of Penance and in the Holy Mass. (fr sean)

Author Topic: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live (Read 159153 times)

cassini

Re: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live

cassini

Re: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live

cassini

Re: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live

cassini

Re: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live

cassini

Re: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live

cassini

Re: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live

cassini

Re: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live

cassini

Re: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live

cassini

Re: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live

cassini

Re: Forgive So We Can Live and Let Live